Adolescence
by Mr. Havik
Summary: One-shot. As a single parent, it is extremely difficult to guide your daughter through puberty, especially for Kahn.


A/N: Not one of my most funniest fics, but hey, I really needed to get this one off my chest, okay?

Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Kombat. If I did, you would've been buying shit like this.

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><p><strong>Adolescence<strong>

**By Mr. Havik**

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><p>Regret was something Shao Kahn had never felt in his entire lifetime. And even when he did, it was at a time when the reason for his regret was not of his own doing at all. But what was he supposed to do anyway? How was he supposed to know that he was capable of harbouring feelings for a woman? Sure she was pretty. It wasn't like he hadn't come across so many beauties during his conquests, all of which he had crushed under the weight of his war hammer. Then why would he fall in love with a woman, already married, already carrying her husband's child, who hated the Emperor with every fibre of her being?<p>

When she killed herself, Kahn had the opportunity to feel sadness. It was not exactly regret back then, because he knew that Sindel would never love him back, no matter how much he lavishly spent upon her or gave her all the luxuries that even the gods did not have. In the end, Jerrod's memory overpowered her heart, and so she took her own life to remain with him in that far off heaven. She had left Kahn her only reminder; the harbinger of her genes... Kitana.

It was today that he was now feeling regret for not keeping a close eye on Sindel all those years ago, for recognising the pain that grew in her heart that would eventually force her to leave this world indefinitely. Right now, he didn't miss her because he loved her. He was missing her because he needed her. _Really_ needed her.

"You tell me that you will not carry out this mission on account of your sickness?" he demanded, leaning out of his massive throne to scrutinize his tiny daughter. She was a scrawny little thing with untamed shoulder-length hair. Despite her feeble and near degenerate appearance, she was a highly capable and vicious assassin; his pride and joy. But after having to hear the girl say no to him, and that promptly after a terrible breakfast, the Emperor was shocked and frustrated. His companion of affairs, the sorcerer Shang Tsung, stood to his right.

It was hard to tell whether Tsung was either bored or sleepy, either way, his age made it nearly impossible to determine the situation. The wrinkles on his face sagged so low that they covered the sorcerer's eyes. Nearly his whole face was hard to make out; it looked like a plate of spaghetti to anyone. Even Kahn had a hard time getting used to seeing the ripples on the magician's face wiggle when he talked, though shivers still ran down his spine every time.

Kitana, contrary to Tsung, had a fresh face and large clear eyes. At times when her visage was concealed with that blue rag, her father had no trouble noticing how she felt by taking a gander at her eyes. Today, though, she seemed frightened. Besides her incessant quivering, her face was red and coated in sweat. Kahn could easily assume that she was truly sick, but she did not have the authority to say no to her parent.

After great moments of eyeing his daughter and listening to his olden lackey yawn again, his powerful and menacing glare managed to break whatever resolve Kitana had mustered. There was no secret that he would allow her to keep from him.

"Papa..." she tried, gulping to moisten her dry mouth. "I... I'm... terribly wounded..."

He saw tears finally well up in her eyes, but being as assassin trained within his strongholds, the young girl gathered enough will to bite back her tongue and keep herself from bursting into wails. The Emperor raised an eyebrow, after which his eyes careful analysed her stick-like figure. She was flawless.

"I do not see anything of the sort!" he cried out, thinking if she was coming up with excuses to back out of this mission.

"No... Papa..." the girl hiccupped. "Its... I'm bleeding... from another place..."

Shao Kahn squinted.

"What...?" he demanded after several moments of awkward silence.

"I'm bleeding... and my... stomach hurts... Am I going to die, Papa?"

Kahn shifted in his seat, finding the very movement to be highly uncomfortable. He leaned back and coughed. He stared at his daughter for another while before gingerly turning his head towards Tsung. He couldn't tell that the sorcerer was looking back at him before that mess of wrinkles that adorned what should have been his face wiggled as he too coughed. Wincing, the Emperor motioned with his eyes for the old man to take the initiative, but he was almost startled out of his throne when the wrinkles lifted to reveal a set of black eyes hidden underneath.

"What, me?" the spaghetti wriggled and Kahn had to purse his lips tightly to keep himself from gagging. So he didn't get used to it after all. "Oh, Hell no! She's your kid!"

"Tsung!" the mighty Emperor called out at the retreating lackey, but all the aged man did was wave a dismissing frail hand at his superior.

"You can hang me if you want, but I'm not doing this!" the sorcerer wheezed and crawled away with a cane in hand. This only left the Emperor in a very distressing situation, especially when a sob was fighting to escape young Kitana's throat. Her parent turned his covered head towards her, wincing again but at her whimpers.

"Are you..." he began, but cleared his throat before deciding to continue. "Have you done anything to stop the bleeding?"

The child looked up at her father with pleading eyes but answered him anyway.

"I've... tried to wrap some bandage around my hips..."

"It passes under your legs?"

Kitana's eyes widened in horror and embarrassment. Kahn scratched his chin and tried to rethink his approach to the situation.

"Erm..." but the words seemed absolutely lost. That was the point that he started missing Sindel. If she were still alive, then she would have been able to aid her daughter at such critical times of her life. Sadly enough, the Emperor was forced by fate to tackle the problem. If only he would have married again. But right now, it was useless to curse the days gone by. Here was the real trouble and Kahn was the only one who could help his daughter in this time of need.

He knew the gods where giggling at his peril somewhere.

"Come here..." he called kindly to his child whilst patting on his lap. She looked at him, confused, for a second or two before cautiously making her way towards the burly ruler. Realising that asking Kitana to sit on his leg while she was having her growing-up situation was a bad idea, he promptly told her to stop. He scratched his head, nearly toppling his helmet off, and then patted on the armrest of his throne. She quietly took a seat on the armrest.

"Listen, Kitana..." he began, using a tone that was the sweetest in his own right. That alone scared Kitana out of her wits.

"I _am_ going to die?" she demanded, that sob on the brink of tearing through.

"No, you are not dying, daughter!" he tried to soothe his child. "You are... um... growing up..."

He could see the confusion in her eyes. He knew that she must be thinking what a silly thing it was for him to say that she would be growing up when she was bleeding painfully. He sighed, removing the helmet from his head and placing it in his lap.

"You are... becoming a woman..."

"But I always was a woman..." she stated innocently.

"No, you were first a girl. And now, you will turn into a woman..."

She blinked.

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes there is..." he replied, massaging the bridge of his nose as he continued to think that this was not happening to him. "There are small differences, and you'll start to see them as time goes by..."

"Differences...?"

"Like the fact that you are bleeding..."

Kitana gave him a very blank stare.

"What does that mean, Papa?"

Kahn sighed, coughed, shifted in his seat, coughed again, and mentally screamed at himself for what was coming next.

"Kitana... there are... a woman... you see, in every girl... there are eggs inside a special place in your body called the womb..."

"Like ducks?"

"A little like ducks... There are so many eggs that its hard to count. When a girl starts to become a woman, some of the eggs go bad and the body needs to throw them out..."

"So that is poopoo?"

Kahn twisted his nose.

"What? No! Listen Kitana, when you become a woman, some eggs die and turn into blood which your body discharges, alright?"

Kitana nodded her head slowly.

"This happens every month, for about a week, and during that time, you have to keep yourself clean by wearing things called napkins..."

"The ones we use to wipe our nosies?"

"No, Kitana. They are special napkins. You put them in your... erm... underwear... and they soak up all the blood..."

She nodded again but with a little more energy.

"Now right now, go take a bath and I'll get you some of those napkins, okay?"

"Yes, Papa... Can you teach me how to wear them?"

The Emperor froze up but eventually found the strength to nod. His child wiped her no longer red face and hopped off his armrest. She quietly jumped down the platform of his throne and jogged away. She raced towards the chamber door and pushed them open.

"Thank you, Papa!" she called without turning back and ran off. Kahn took a long moment to stare at the entrance door that was only a crack ajar, feeling awefully silly when he thought about how she thanked him. He pulled his helmet over his mask to hide the smile that would not wipe off his face. He falsely assumed it was because he had done not too bad a job. It didn't take a moment for the grin to actually vanish when the Emperor put his elbow on the armrest upon which Kitana was sitting and promptly pulled it back.

He reminded himself to have that weasel Tsung clean his throne.

Though, in reality Kahn would have even greater troubles when his daughter would come to him another day, complaining that her chest was developing into two lumps of flesh. He would have to tell her that it was not cancer as she thought it to be. But the truth, in fact, was even more dangerous. Well, at least for him, that is...


End file.
